Southern France with Luxury & Style (11 Days): A Sample Itinerary

ID #: DT-F-11-1-31-08-BESI

• Walk with your local guide through the papal stronghold of Avignon and visit the Clock Square and Palais des Papes, adorned with 14th-century frescoes
• Wander through L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue's famous flea market, crammed with antiques, food stalls and street musicians. Continue to the 12th-century Abbaye de Senanque in Gordes
• Watch an expert demonstrate the local bowling game, petanque. Visit Matisse's Chapelle du Rosaire
• Sightseeing on the Côte d'Azur, including stylish Cannes, picturesque Le Suquet and Antibes
• Wander the Old Town and open-air market in Nice before visiting the Matisse Museum
• Explore Monte Carlo's extravagant Palais Princier and the Oceanography Museum. Continue to cliffside Eze, with dramatic coastal views, and stop in Beaulieu to see its Belle Epoque mansion, Villa Kerylos

Overview:

Provence, the Midi, these are magical names in a luminous landscape that inspired Van Gogh and Cézanne, and changed the course of modern painting. They have also created a new current in contemporary travel. 

With its feet in the Mediterranean and its head in the Alps, the region has an extensive palette of colorful landscapes.

In 19th-century European high society, people would often talk of a magical land where winter never came - that land of unending sunshine and azur waters. 

A few miles back from the shore is a less publicized side of the Riviera --- a world of romantic hill towns and perched villages balanced on craggy peaks. Worn-down stone stairs and cobbled byways lead through modest hamlets crowding around ancient châteaux.